1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting apparatus employing LEDs (Light Emitting diode) and a control circuit for the lighting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the replacement of incandescent light bulbs and xenon lamps with LED lighting devices has been accelerating. Typically, dimming of such incandescent light bulbs and xenon lamps is performed by means of a phase control method using a triac. An LED has a problem in that such an LED exhibits a small change in the color of its emitted light according to the change in the current that flows through it, as compared with incandescent light bulbs and xenon lamps. Thus, in a case of employing the same dimming control operation for the dimming of such an LED as that employed for the dimming of incandescent light bulbs and xenon lamps, such an arrangement cannot provide a sufficient light color change. In order to solve such a problem, a technique has been proposed in which a white-color LED and an orange-color LED are employed, and the light emitted from the white-color LED and the light emitted from the orange-color LED are mixed so as to widen the range of light color to be emitted by such an LED device (see Patent document 1, for example).